Manufacture of alcohol-reduced beer.



' so its addition to the' alcehol-re been such conditions that while the fermentation In Drawing.

nnnm nnusnn, or cmcaeo, rumors umraoruna or a coiioL-annucnn em To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERMAN HnUsER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago,- in the county of'Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Alcohol-Reduced Beer, of which the followin is a specification;

y invention refers to the manufacture of alcoholreduced beverages made from fermented beveragessuch as beer bevera es, and in particular it refers to the manu acture of non-intoxicatin beer containing. a small amount of-alcoho as for instance less than of 1% by volume, which is the internal revenue taxable limit. More particularly my present invention consists insubjectmg alcohol-reduced beer to the action of fermenting wort or kraeusen containing the elements of yeast fermentation under of the; wort will restore the characteristic taste and flavor of the original beer-to thealcohol-reduced; boot it will not carbonate the latter, and then carbonati the uncarbonated mixture by any artificia means,

In carrying out my invention, any kind of beer ,mayserve as a base for the operations totbefiescribed, and any suitable' apparatus may be employed. I prefer however, to use beer of normal avity, thoroughly fermerited, well clarified, and li ht in color,

and the followingexemplificatlon of myin- .ventio'n is based onits application to beer of customary composition and usual alcoholic character. Assuming that the quantityto be processed is 100 barrels of such beer, this fermenting wo w ich has an alcohol-pro- 'uantity" is subjected to boiling for the reaction of its alcohol to the desiredextent. -When'the alcohol-content of the beer whas been reducedto say 0.07 by volume deter-- mined after the, volume rectification to the originallOO barrels has taken place, the beer is cooled-tea suitabletemperature, say 48 F., and at] this tem e'rature it is mixed with ducing capacity of 3.50% by volume and is pitched to the barrel with 2 pounds of siderab'le'percenta content is proportionately small when comthick-fluid vigorous yeast containinglactic to acid bacteria. While fermenting wort even at the first kraeusen stage'contains'a couof alcohol and its CO pared with the amount, ofnal'cohol, as "most of the CO escapes into the atmos here, and

' Specification of Letters rum.

Application filed November 4, 1918. Serial No. 260,862.

Patented May 6. 1919.

increases the alcohol-content of the beer considerably without pro ortionally increasing its ()0 content or ed ervescence, I preferably use wort in an advanced state of fermentation, provided it is not entirely fermented, as it increases the alcohol-content of the beer and produces in it a smaller amount of CO on account of its being fermented to a larger degree when it is added, and as my invention avoids carbonating the beer by kraeusen'fermentation and contemplates the subsequent carbonation of the kraeusen fermented beer by artificial means it utilizes wort. in advanced fermentation to take advantage of the more vigorous condition of the yeast in such wort, as well as the improved taste and flavor of suchwort due to the fact that by its advanced fermentation it has lost'itsraw wort flavor and wort taste and has acquired. a beery taste and flavor. r a 1 The alcohol-reduced beer 'issubjected to the action of the fermenting wort or kraeusen under such conditions that while the kraeusemfermentationrestores the taste and flavor I of the original beerto, the alcohol-reduced beer it Wlll not carbonate the latter,

as for example Shy-using a smaller. amount of wort than is necessary to develop a suflicient amount of ClIlbOIilO acid gas to efiervesce or carbonate the beer, 'sa 5 barrels of such wort to 100 barrels of t e alcohol-reduced beer, or by treating the .lalcolioLreduced beer with the wort inL-a'vessel communiveating with the air; intheclatter case the alnountof wort'ndded to the beer can be varied to produce an ,alcoholl-contentof any desired extent"\vitlioutYcarbonating the beer as the C0 escapes to the atmosphere. The

fermentation of the wort at'once improves the taste and flavor of the beer, andxwhen the beer and wort have,,been thoroughly mixed the mixture is stored" at a temperature of about l8 F. for about aweek to stimulate yeast fermentation, as well as the. activity of the lactic acid bacteria, and then it is cooled to the storage'temperatures of beer, say 37for 38 'F., to avoid infection liable "to occur at higher temperatures, .and is stored a t, such temperature: for sufficient time toenable the fermentative and propagative functions or'activities of the yeast to take be in the beer is too s mall to eziercise any retarding effect thereon, and as the restoration of the taste and flavor imparted 2y the yeast and lactic acid bacteria is not a ected by the very small amount of carbonic acid gas that may be present in the mixture, it is carried to its maximum de ree. The taste and flavor improvement in the beer is watched by periodical sampling, and when it has advanced to the desired degree, which may take a week or two, the beer containing by this time an alcohol-content of 0.24% by volume is subjected to artificial carbonation by any well known means. Such carbonation may be preferabl carried out to the best advantage by car onating the beer in bulk while it is being mechanically stirred.

Finall after having been clarified by filtration, the beer is ready for the market.

I am aware that it has been proposed to introduce into cooled alcohol-reduced beer about fifteen per cent. of kraeusen to produce a secondary fermentation to restore the taste, flavor and effervescence of the original beer,- and that in such process the eflervescence is produced by the carbonation of the beer by the carbonic acid gas developed by this kraeusen fermentation, as in the patents to Uhlmann, No. 613,915, dated Nov. 8, 1898, and Nilson, No. 721,383, dated Feb. 2, 1903. In such a process the kraeusen carbonation of the beeris neces sarily done in'a closed or bunged vessel,

the same way that it'is done in the customary chipcask fermentation of regular.

because otherwise the carbonic acid -5- would escape without performing its "ca bonating function; and em? bonation proceeds under abunging pressure of 5 or 6 pounds, while simultaneously lar e quantities of CO are blown off through .tfie bunging apparatus. This necessitates the addition of a large amount of frmentable carbohydrates to produce the necessary volume of CO because unlike regular beer which contains 0.30% of CO- alcohol-reduced beer contains no CO and as beer must contain 0.41% of (10 before it attains the average degree of chipcask elfervescence alcohol-reduced beer requires about four times as much CO as regular beer to make it properly effervescent. The result is that such kraeusen carbonation permits only the fermentative or alcohol-and CO producing action of the yeast and the large amount of C0 arrests the propagative action of the east, as Well as the action of the lactic acid acteria, and so the taste and flavor restoring activities of these elements are retarded, it being well-known that where the working of yeast is limited to its fermentative action alcohol and CO are abundantly produced but the characteristic taste and flavor of the yeast are notreproduced or restored, and that in treatingbeer CO exercises a prokraeusen carnounced retarding eflect upon both the propagative and fermentative actions of the yeast (see page 170 of Die Gae'r'ungeefuehml/n9 by Delbrucck and Hayduck) and that bonated beer, it being understood that normally 0.41% of CO is retained in the beer and at least 0.20% is blown off. Also, the kraeusen carbonation precludes stabilizing thealcohol contents of the beer as of the CO developed the amount retained averages at the usual bunging pressure not less than 0:41% and the amount blown off during the long time required for this treatment is betwen0.20% and 0.40%, so that taking the development of alcohol and CO 'by yeast fermentation at the correct ratio of51-Q-I1 to 48.89 and the specific gravityof alcohol at 0.7935, it is obvious that the amount of CO retained in the beer corresponds t' o 0.54% of alcohol by volume and itlie amount of-CO, blown oil through the gin-"g apparatus may correspond to the samelfigure whereb the total amount of lcohol'prodnc'ed by Y raeusen carbonation is r q" by'volume. So it is not practical to stabilize the-alcohol-content of those beverage'sma le by kraeusen carbonation withinythje internal revenue limit of less than of j11%f.by volume, and as the commercial alcohol reduced beers contain an alcoholrest of from 0.05 to 0.15% of alcohol by volume after the volume rectification to the original amount has taken place, this alcohol-rest added to the alcohol produced by kraeusen carbonation increases the uncer tainty of stabilizing by kraeusen carbonation the alcohol to this small amount permitted by the internal revenue regulatio On the other hand, my invention obviates these disadvantages. By adding the kraeusen to the alcohol-reduced beverage under such conditions that kraeusen car- 'bonation does not occur I can use the small amount of kraeusen thatis sufiicient to pro duce the fermentation for rwtoring the taste and flavor of the original beverage but is below the minimum amount necessa for carbonation, and so I am able to sta ilize the alcohol-content at any predetermined amount. I also am able to utilize both the fermentative and propagative actions of the yeast, as the small amount of CO that may 3 be present in the beverage is insuflicient to arrest this propagative action, which therefore actstoits full extent and withoutretardation to reproduce in full degree the characteristic taste and flavor of the ori 'nal beverage. My invention permits the lltl ization of the propagative action of the yeast in analo wlth its action in the main fermentation of wort or beer where the characteristic taste and flavor of the original beverage are produced. By dispensing with kraeusen carbonation I am also able to artificially carbonate the beverage torestore its effervescence after the taste andflavor restoration by the propagative action of the yeast contained in the added kraeusen has taken lace in the alcohol-reduced beer and so wi out impairing the restored taste or flavor. bacteria contained in the pitching yeast imparts to the beverage the pungent taste of y the original beer and helps to remove the burnttaste or flavor imparted by boilin t0 thealcohol-reduced beverage, and as C 2 is inimical tothe growth and development of such bacteria they are given full freedom of action by my invention as the CO in the beer is negligible, while there is no danger of too much lactic acid being formed as the Also, the action of the lactic acid y beer beveragesall beverages made by yeast fermentation of liquids possessing in solution the essential constituents of beer wort in about the same ratio as beer wort, it being immaterial from what materials or by what proces such liquids are made. Y

I mean by \vort" as used in the claims hereof wort or kraeusen containin the required elements of fermentation. This application is a continuation of parts of my coending application filed July 25th, 1914,

aring Serial Number 853,059.

1. In the manufacture of alcohol-reduced beer, the process which consists in subjecting alcohol-reduced beer to the action of fermenting wort Without carbonating it, and then artificially carbonating the beer.

2. In themanufactuib of alcohol-reduced beer, the process which consists in reducing the alcohol content of beer, subjecting the alcohol-reduced beerto the fermentin action of wort in an advanced state 0 fermentation without carbonatinglthe beer, and

then artificially c-arbonati t e beer,

3.- In the manufacture o alcohol-reduced beer, the process which consists in reducing the alcohol content of beer below one-half of one per cent, by volume, subjecting the alcohol-reduced beer to the action of fermenting wort in such manner that the alcohol content of the fermented beer is below one-half of one per cent. by volume and without carbonating the beer, and then artificially carbonating the beer. v a n In testimony whereof I afi'lx my signature in presence of two witnesses.

BERNICE GORMLEY. 

